The American Fighter

"The Battle of the Bulge was over. Left behind were two tiny ravaged countries, destroyed homes and farms, dead cattle, dead souls, dead minds -- and more than 75,000 bodies.

Autumn Fog was creeping back to the Fuhrer like some huge wounded beast. It reminded many of Napoleon's retreat from Moscow. Men shuffled painfully through the snow, feet encased in burlap bags, with shawls wound around their heads like careless turbans. They plodded on frozen feet, bedeviled by biting winds, bombs and shells. The wounded and sick crept back to the homeland with rotting insides, ulcers oozing, pus running from destroyed ears. They staggered east on numb feet with despair in their hearts, stricken by dysentery, which left its bloody trail of filth in the snow.

Their will was broken. Few who survived the retreat believed there was now any chance of German victory. Almost every man brought back a story of doom, of Allied might, and of the terrifying weapon forged in the Ardennes: the American fighter. The GI who came out of the battle was the quintessential American -- the man Hitler did not believe existed."

- John Toland, Adolf Hitler: The Definitive Biography